the capital live. gene otani spoke earlier with a reporter and koreanensu specialist. >> hiroki, who took these pictures and what do they mean? ua student who went en to us by there as part of citizens exchange program. it shows everyday scenes in e pil. thg dramatic. but it does give us some clues about the new leadership dts plans f tcountry. star starting placing the ti's founder and his son are always displayed across onan this one reads let's award the highest honors to our dearest comrade, kim jung un. the slogan -- because they are the final words used by kim jung wi his first speechn public. such displays of hisamcrs e pilee to indicate that the transfer of power is ing smoothly. let's see what se wca learn. this subway station in the capital. the feature to note here is a ticket gate which is fitted with ectni card scanner. a relatively new expernce for commuters that was launched in 2008. a north korean bank has always launched debit card system in january 11 while significant is that orderly citizens can be seen using mobilephes ♪ north korean state-run tvho proper use of mobile phones in public areas. >> how pul i the use of mobile phones in north korea? >> well, it's becoming very common in the capital. north korea launched a 3g twk in 2008 as a joint venture with an egyptian provid provider. the spread of mobile phones means if a nation is now circulating faster, but there's still some important limits. for example, ordinary citizens are not allowed to make overseas calls. on the other hand, a state department survey published earlier this month shows people in north korea have more pounieto access foreign media. the survey targeted north koanwh led the country. 75% of respondents said they have seen foreign tv programs. roughly half of them saidhe d watched foreign dvds while in north korea. this resident explains thath rfef h apartment is 170 square meters. her rent is a mere 410 waun per month. it was made possible by the cotrs new leader. >> people seem to be very loyal to the new leadership. >> yes. i think the new regime's footing appears very solid. kim jong-un is said to be especially keen to promote modern technologies. north koreans are getting to know a little more about the outside world. so maybe he's trying to convince them that their country is not too far behind. >> it seems like it's quite a change from earlier policies. >> well, the government still enforces a strict ban on movies and tv programs at home. the regime is very worried about people gaining more access to the wider world. so it is likely to step up efforts to restrict the flow of information. a widening gap between rich and poor. construction is booming in pyongyang but mainly reserved for the wealthy elite. this wealth gap combined with the inflow of information may weakenn's control. >> nhk world's hiroki there. lee mum back has criticized people who support north korea. he called on them to change their way of thinking. >> translator: the north is problematic, but pro north korea groups in this country to blindly follow the north are a greater problem. >> the president made the criticism during an address on his visit earlier this month to myanmar. he said he visited a site in yangon to mourn for the south korean victims of a 1983 terrorist bombing. the attack targeted then south korean president. he survived but 21 south koreans were killed including cabinet ministers. president lee criticized north korea for denying involvement in the bombing and in the sinking of a south korean naval vessel in 2010. oppositi oppositi opposition lawmakers were accused of fraud during a political election last month. lee wants to eliminate any influence on the presidential election in december. u.n. arab lead kofi anan returned to syria to try to salvage a u.n. mediated cease fire. he's back in the country after government forces attacked near the central city of homs on friday. more than 100 people died in the attack. many of the casualties were women and children. the former u.n. secretary general said he will meet syrian president al assad on tuesday. >> it must end. and it must end now. >> the government forces continued indiscriminate attacks on citizens over the weekend. a local human rights group says nearly 70 people were killed on sunday and monday. a fire has swept through a high end shopping mall in qatar. 19 people died including 13 children. the fire sent black smoke rising above the buildings. some of the victims died as rescuers struggled to reach a day care center. an amusement park, indoor ice skating rink and canal among other amenities. authorities are investigating the cause of the fire. one of two men will become the next president of egypt. a former prime minister and a candidate from the muslim brotherhood will compete next month in a runoff. members of the election commission announced the results of last week's first round vote. they say the turnout was about 46%. the muslim brotherhood is the largest party in parliament. its candidate, morsi finished first with more than 24% of the vote. former president hosni mubarak's last prime minister came second with more than 23%. but no one secured an absolute majority. so the two front-runners will enter a runoff june 16th and 17th. protesters ousted mubarak last year in the swell of the arab spring. young egyptians spearheaded the uprising but the youth failed to field a strong candidate in the runoff poll. the campaign is expected to be a devicive showdown between the islamists and a reminder of the old regime. china's ruling communist party has expelled a former railway minister. the party's disciplinary watchdog found him guilty of corruption. the state-run news agency said the discipline will refer to prosecutors. the commission said he abused his power and received large sums of money as bribes. he oversaw investments in china's booming railway sector over the last decade. he was removed from his ministerial post in february of last year. came under harsh criticism after a fatal high speed rail crash last july raised concerns and questions about corruption in railway development projects. a government panel concluded in december that a flaw in the design of the control equipment was a key factor in the accident. investigators said the railway ministry violated rules in the bidding process for the equipment. investors are worried that spanish banks may be collapsing. so tell us more about the fears there. >> sure. well, investors are not just worried about the banks in spain, they're worried about the country itself. and that of course stirs up once again these concerns over the eurozone. all this being reflected in spain's borrowing costs. the yield on spanish government bonds rose on growing concerns about the country's fiscal health as well as its banking sector. the benchmark 10-year government bonds were sold in europe on monday with yields hitting 6.5% at one point. last weekend the spanish government effectively decided to nationalize the country's third largest bank, bankia, but injecting 19 billion euros or about $24 billion in additional public funds. the move fueled fears about more bank bailouts and a surge in government spending. spanish banks are struggling in the wake of a collapsed property bubble. on the stock exchange in madrid, bankia's shares lost nearly 30% at one stage. shares of other major banks were also sold across the board. now, spain's prime minister said at an emergency news conference that his government currently does not need to ask for eu assistance over funds to recapitalize banks. wall street investors took a day off on monday. u.s. markets were closed for a public holiday. but investors have become increasingly jittery, as you know, about the banking sector in spain. for more on trading in tokyo, let's go to the tokyo stock exchange. good morning to you. what is the picture over there? >> good morning to you. you talked about spanish banking problems there. and in fact actually european stock markets initially traded higher where with polls suggesting that the next greek government might be more inclined to implement some of the strict austerity measures which would keep it in the eurozone. but then of course we did have the increased concerns about spain's third biggest bank, bankia, that actually put a negative slant on trade. let's have a look at how things are kicking off actually today for the nikkei and topix. that negativity pretty much feeding through to the nikkei and topix. also april unemployment data coming in at 6.4%. and markets, economists largely expecting that to be around 4.5%. also household spending up 2.6%. again, that was a touch higher than markets were expecting. but we'll see how that feeds through the markets today. meanwhile, the nikkei has ended modestly higher for the last three sessions although key sectors do remain weighed down because of overseas events such as the eurozone debt issues, u.s. economic data and the banking sector which has been heavily sold off recently. we've also seen shares trade lower here on the back of recent corporate earnings in japan with a lot of blue chip companies announcing major restructuring moves in order to cut some of their losses. pan sockic yesterday, for instance, came out and said it will be making major cuts, cost cutting measures and work force layoffs. they did come out with a record net loss in its earnings just a couple weeks ago. many japanese companies also looking to overseas tie-ups and mergers in order to increase their profits. we already heard about sharp's tie-up to make panels for apple's iphone. but also in the commodity and energy sector, one of japan's biggestrading companies may also be possibly tying up with one of the major u.s. grain producers there in order to secure some of the energy sources and food resources into the future. also a lot of japanese companies trying to engage in more energy-related tie-ups as well. let's have a quick look at currency levels as well. yen currently still relatively strong against the dollar and the euro. >> and, ramine, while global investors are maintaining focus on the debt woes in europe, u.s. figures, they're still in the frame as well, right? >> yeah. adp jobs data on thursday and then the main jobs data on friday. before that home price index to deal with. quite a bit of economic data. but looks like the eurozone really the big focus for now. back to you. >> thanks a lot for that update. now, as he just mentioned, japan's unemployment rate rose in april. the internal affairs ministry said the seasonally adjusted jobless rate is 4.6%. a rise of .1% from march. the number of people without jobs was over 3 million while those in employment numbered just about 63 million. meanwhile, job availability in japan rose for the eleventh month in a row in april. the labor ministry says there were 79 positions for each 100 job seekers last month. the ministry attributes the increase to a recovery among retailers in some areas. job vacancies in disaster-hit regions rose. the figure for miyagi prefecture stood at 104. that's the first time in about five years the number has topped 100. meanwhi meanwhile, the ministry says job openings in the disaster regions are mostly construction related. all right, that's the latest for me for this hour. i will leave you with a look at markets. people in japan's northeast are focused on overcoming the challenges of the 2011 disaster. but it won't be easy. they have to rebuild homes, businesses, entire communities. we'll show you their struggles and their successes on "the road ahead" every wednesday at 1:00 p.m. japan time here on "newsline." japan's former prime minister is defending how he led his country through one of its most challenging times in history. kan was in charge on march 11, 2011 when an earthquake shook the nation, triggered devastating tsunami and sparked meltdowns at fukushima daiichi. he gave his side of the story when he testified in front of a government panel involving the accident at the plant. >> translator: the government must bear responsibility for promoting its knew clear power policy. and failing to prevent the accident at the nuclear plant. as the head of the government at that time, i'd like to apologize again for this failing. >> kan also added the government didn't receive enough information about the accident from japan's nuclear safety agency and other sources. he said he feared the situation could get out of control. the day after the accident kan flew to fukushima daiichi. >> translator: i decided to go to the site because i thought i might be able to grasp what was happening if i spoke to the relevant person. >> the former prime minister explained he wanted to know why emergency team was not being carried out despite rising pressure in the containment vessel. he says the tepco official responded that he didn't know. >> translator: japan might not have been able to function as a nation if the worst case scenario had been realized. after experiencing the accident, the safest thing to do is not to rely on nuclear power but to denucle denuclearize. >> the investigators will finalize their report next month and submit it to the speakers of both houses of the diet. japanese scientists say radioactive substances from the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant may have spread around the globe in about 40 days. a research team from fukushima university measured the concentration of airborne radioactive substances in fukushima city. they took daily readings from may last year, about two months after the accident. the scientists say the measurements rose and fell in 40-day cycles. but they say the overall density declined by around 85% by march this year. fukushima university professor and research leader says the results of the study can be applied to any other country or region. >> translator: the research will enable us to measure what influence the radioactive materials from fukushima has on the planet. >> the nuclear accident raised concerns about the safety of food from fukushima. some consumers still avoid buying products from that prefecture. even if inspectors have approved the items. police say that prompted a former meat shop manager to bend the rules. investigators say he admitted to selling falsely labeled beef from fukushima in february at a store in osaka in western japan. police say he told them he didn't think people would buy meat from fukushima. agriculture ministry officials ordered the shop's operator last month to label its products correctly. they discovered it falsified the or gin of 1.45 tons of beef. a sunny morning in tokyo, but residents are carrying their umbrellas. sudden thundershowers are in the forecast. rachel ferguson joins us now with the world weather forecast. it is going to be a fine morning here in tokyo. we had those pop-up thunderstorms yesterday across much of honshu. we're going to get about the same today. but in fact the rain could be even heavier. parts of central japan including can to region could see as much as 50 millimeters of rain just in the space of one hour. so some very heavy rain that can cause flash flooding, which as you know very, very dangerous stuff. hail and tornadoes are also potentially -- we also have the potential for hail and tornadoes. so some pretty severe weather coming our way once again from the afternoon into the evening hours. now, more heavy rain is targeting inland china. it's along this front here. you can see pushing in towards the shanghai region. today the bay provinces, you are looking at the potenti for maybe 100 millimeters of rain, probably going to be seeing the peak of it on tuesday. up towards the north we've got another system moving across. this one's going to bring some very heavy rain into the korean peninsula and particularly seoul as we head into wednesday. clear across much of the korean peninsula today. the monsoon is starting to rev up across the indochina. 30s in manila as well as bangkok. 27 in hong kong. cooler in chongqing because you have the rain coming through keeping things a little bit on the cooler side. meanwhile 12 in ulan batur. fairly chilly day. and 25 in tokyo. we're likely to see, as i said, that severe weather coming through from the afterno hours. all right, as we head into north america we're going to start down here in the southeast. as you'll know, yesterday a tropical storm beryl made landfall just around jacksonville in florida. now, the system has since come down to a tropical depression. the winds down to 45 kilometers an hour. it's moving very slowly around 7 kilometers an hour. so this system, the winds are not too much of a threat right now, however, the rain is continuing to fall. and it will continue to fall over the next couple of days as it makes its way up through georgia and in towards north carolina. now, once it leaves north carolina, comes back into the water over those warm waters and gets out of that rough terrain, it's likely to energize again once again becoming a tropical storm. we're not out of the woods where this system is concerned. the rain alone will prove a problem. 100ext 48 hours right through florida up into fwa georgia. you could see as much as 200 to 300 meters of rain locally. the likelihood of flooding is going to be with us over the next several days. more severe thunderstorms today from texas right up through into ontario through the great lakes region. that's going to move very slowly towards the east. means that severe threat will continue right through our tuesday. out west is looking cooler, but much more settled. you'll see a few showers starting to come through in towards the coast. we've got 16 degrees in vancouver. and just 11 in winnipeg. meanwhile really keeping the heat, lots of temperatures in the low 30s, new york city, d.c., as well as oklahoma city and houston, very, very hot. stays hot and dry also to the southwest. all right, a quick look into europe. it has been so hot across the british isles as well as parts of western europe. that's going to change. we've got this front here sagging down from the north. that's going to bring temperatures down as cooler air comes in. lots of thunderstorms spread out across the mediterranean with some particularly heavy rain around the black sea region. we're talking about the balkans as well as turkey dealing with heavy downpours. here are your temperatures. and i'm going to leave you now with your extended forecast. our lead stories this hour, u.n. arab league envoy kof kofi annan on monday tried to sals a u.n. mediated cease fire. he's back in the country after government forces attacked the area near the central city of homs on friday. more than 100 people died in the attack. many of the casualties were women and children. the former u.n. secretary general said he will meet syrian president al assad on tuesday. >> our goal is to stof the suffering. it must end. and it must end now. >> the government forces continued indiscriminate attacks on citizens over the weekend. a local human rights group says nearly 70 people were killed on sunday and monday. a fire has swept through a high-end shopping mall in qatar. 19 people died including 13 children. the fire sent black smoke rising above the buildings. some of the victims died as rescuers struggled to reach a day care center. the mall houses luxury brand shops, an amusement park, indoor ice skating rink and canal. authorities are investigating the cause of the fire. that's all for this edition of "newsline." kathrine kobaji in toke you. kathrine kobaji in toke you. thanks for joining us. play funky space-rock] ♪ ♪ (jane joyce) mountains are "water towers" of the world. at least half of the fresh water we consume comes from mountain ice and snow that melts into rivers and streams. but as earth's climate warms, changes occur in mountain ecosystems that alter both the amount and timing of available fresh water. research conducted at glacier national park documents the changes taking place across this vast mountain landscape. our snowpack, for instance, is heavier during the middle part of the winter but melting earlier. that sends a pulse down the streams earlier in the year, meaning that there's less of it for late in the summer when the stream flows are very low. and in some cases with those snowpacks disappearing so early, the only source of base flow for those streams is melting glaciers. (jane joyce) changes in the water cycle are not the only result of a warming climate. (dr. dan fagre) our tree lines are changing rapidly as well. many of the broad fields of alpine wildflowers are gradually being encroached upon by these trees. as you have these wetter and warmer temperatures you grow more forests, so our potential for forest fires increases. (jane joyce) from warming temperatures, to changes in the water cycle and plant growth, climate change affects the dynamics of the entire mountain ecosystem.